KGNU’s Neil Smart hosts musicians Tony Furtado and John Reischman, who talk about their show at Swallow Hill in Denver along with Eric Thorin. They play a few songs and discuss their musical backgrounds (Interview date: 9/14/2024)
Neil Smart: I’m joined in the studio by two amazing musicians that you know and love, Mr. Tony Furtado and Mr. John Reischman. Good morning, fellas.
Tony Furtado: Hey there.
John Reischman: Good morning. Good to be here. My old stomping ground.
Neil Smart: Yes, indeed. John and I were just talking off mic. He’s from some of my old stomping grounds.
John Reischman: I live in Vancouver nowadays, but not originally from there.
Neil Smart: Tony wasn’t originally from here either.
Tony Furtado: Nope. I grew up in California. So did Johnny, right?
John Reischman: Northern California. Yeah.
Neil Smart: You got a big show tonight at Swallow Hill at 8 o’clock, folks. If you’ve never been to Swallow Hill, go. If you’ve been to Swallow Hill a thousand times, go. I know both of you guys have played that venue many times.
Tony Furtado: Yeah, and you were right, we’re being joined by Eric Thorin on acoustic bass, so that always makes it nicer.
Neil Smart: It’s terrible to have to do, settle for Eric on bass.
Tony Furtado: Yeah, we go way back. When I lived here and I did the more rockin’ thing, he was playing electric bass with me, and that was fun too. But it’s nice to be able to go back to the string band sound. These past few years I’ve been focusing on that more and so it’s nice to call him from time to time and play some acoustic bass.
Neil Smart: It’s all the same notes, isn’t it? How about playing us some notes?
Tony Furtado: Sure, you got it, yeah. I’ll do a song that kind of rides the line of bluegrass and rootsy stuff. This is something I wrote called “Give Me Your Soul”, and then I’ll pop another tune in the middle of it that I call “Firecracker”.
Neil Smart: Very cool stuff there. I’ve been sitting over here since Tony walked in the room lusting after that 1944 00-17 he’s playing.
Tony Furtado: Nice little guitar. I’ve always loved that thing. I got it in ‘96. It was mint condition and I got it in Salt Lake City. It’s just been my main ax for this many years, and it’s looking pretty beat up, but that’s only because it’s been on the road so much.
Neil Smart: It’s also 80 years old, at some point it’s going to get beat up, right?
Tony Furtado: That’s very true. That’d be nice to do one of John’s tunes right now.
Neil Smart: That sounds perfect to me.
John Reischman: We’ll do a tune of mine, it comes from a nickname for my daughter, Vanessa, and it’s called “Nesser”.
It’s a grassy tune. I conceived of this originally as, I gotta come up with a tune that would sound good on the banjo. This is what I came up with.
Neil Smart: That was a lot of fun.
Tony Furtado: That was fun. That was a cool ending.
Neil Smart: Folks, if you are just tuning in or I have been remiss in letting you all know, I’m joined in the studio this morning by two of the best there is, Mr. Tony Furtado and Mr. John Reischman. Tony, you’re even getting shoutouts from former KGNU DJs that have moved out of the area. Our old pal Windy Gap, talking about a show you did with Ty Burhoe.
Tony Furtado: Oh my gosh, yeah! A hundred years ago.
Neil Smart: This is a family show and a family station, and you’ve been family.
Tony Furtado: I appreciate that.
Neil Smart: Yes indeed folks, the Tony Furtado Trio featuring John Reischman and Eric Thorin on bass, John Reischman of course on mandolin.
Eight o’clock tonight, folks, at Swallow Hill down in Denver.
Tony Furtado: It’s the last gig of the tour. We played Fort Collins last night and Grand Junction the night before. Started in Salt Lake City. It’s a nice little compact tour, the way I like them these days.
Neil Smart: Not a whole lot of days away from home.
Tony Furtado: Not a whole lot of days away from home.
Neil Smart: I understand that. Could I get you to give us one more and we’ll let you get on your way and get some rest.
Tony Furtado: I learned this one a number of years ago for a gig I played with my buddy Scott Law, who’s an amazing guitar player and singer songwriter in Portland, where I live. And we were asked to do a Jerry Garcia tribute set. I didn’t grow up listening to the Grateful Dead. He made me a short list of songs to check out, and this one sounded strangely familiar to me, and then I found out it started its life as a Scottish folk song way, way back.
I think it was called the Bonnie Made of Fyvie-o or something, and now we all know it as “Pretty Peggy-O”, so we’ll do that.
Neil Smart: Tony Furtado, John Reischman, folks, tonight at Swallow Hill at 8 o’clock in the big room. Daniel’s Hall at Swallow Hill, folks. Get out there and see them. You got a really nice taste of what you’re gonna hear tonight. There’s probably a few tricks up your sleeve beyond what we’ve heard this morning.
Tony Furtado: There’ll be a bit more banjo than that.
Neil Smart: If you like banjo, come on out. Is the Bluegrass Show. Everybody loves banjo, don’t they?
Thanks again for coming in, guys.
Tony Furtado: Thanks for having us.
John Reischman: Great to be here.
Neil Smart: Yeah. Thanks for coming in on such an un musician friendly hour.
We’re gonna get back to recorded music now, folks. Here we go.
